Welcome to the thread, the forum, and Tolkien Online. You can call me Axordil, your host and short-order chef for discussions.

I've been hanging out on these message boards for years now, and have seen people and trends coming and leaving like the tide. Change is a constant, one of only two here. The other is, for lack of a better word, civility. If you read the Terms of Service (ToS), you'll see that it's not just a good idea, it's the law, at least here.

Does that mean discussions here are dull and lifeless? Au contraire. In the places I tend to hang out--the Philosophy forum, aka the Halls of Manwe, and the Movies (Lord of the Rings) forum , things can get quite lively indeed, sometimes pushing the limits of the aforementioned ToS. And then there's Talk...

So if you're interested in an argument--this site is full of 'em. But they are _polite_ arguments, even when they get heated. And that's one of the reasons I like this place. I've been banging my head against some folks the whole time I've been here, and even though I may vehemently disagree with their opinions, I respect them as worthy opponents.

That's an attitude I think has a place here. And that's what this thread is all about--helping newer members of the community to see what makes a good, civil discussion both good and civil.

Questions? Ask away, preferably in this thread, or check its predecessor. That's what it's here for.

Enjoy!

Last edited by Axordil on Tue Jul 06, 2004 8:37 am, edited 2 times in total.

(looking around)<BR><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0> I like the new place. Track lighting, no less! And I feel honored to be the first customer in the door.<BR><BR>Do you still have Entdraught on tap? (hope, hope...) <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif"border=0><BR><BR>May peace and blessings be upon this house, its coffee, its hot chocolate, and all who visit here, newcomers and older folk alike!<BR><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0>

<BR>I've heard that diners do better if customers can smell bread baking....<BR><BR><i>*plunks a nice, new bread machine on a counter in the kitchen.*</i><BR><BR>This way, there can always be the nice, yummy smell of fresh, baked bread in the air. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><BR><BR><i>*fills machine and gets it going*</i><BR><BR>Just wait until the bake cycle starts. This place will smell so good the bread itself will just be an afterthought! <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><BR><BR><i>*helps herself to some hot chocolate and sits back to wait for newbies to arrive*</i><BR><BR>

I'm not allowed to have a bread machine. Atkins, you know. Although some of the low-carb breads out there are actually pretty good...<BR><BR>The smell or baking bread, on the other hand, is up there with the smell of coffee brewing for sheer brain-grabbing. <BR><BR>Now all we need is the smell of leaves burning wafting by occasionally...<img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0>

WHOHOA!!!<BR><BR>LIKE the new PLACE...track lighting, leather booths...do I smell bread baking? LOOK at that tapestry...my gosh, it's the map from LOTR! And scenes from the books at each place...where did you pick that up, Ax?<BR><BR>No Lite Entdraught for me...give me the high octane. I'm tired of being 5' 3".<BR>Hey! The prices won't be any higher, will they?<BR><BR>I brought a little gift in celebration, you know...hope you like it! <BR><i>places a large wrapped gift on the counter</i><BR><BR>TWE

Ooh! Well, it is the diner's birthday, so to speak. (starts unwrapping)<BR><BR>Glad you like the decor. I got it cheap by ransacking condemned hobbit holes. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0>

I always pictured the old Hash House with 1950's formica booths and red naugahyde-covered bar stools. Some guy with a tattoo and a ponytail was leaning on a jukebox, and a bust of Socrates was mounted on the wall next to a poster for Casablanca. <BR><BR>Tiggie's Italian leather furniture was upstairs (where the fire started? - if we're rummaging in hobbit holes? somehow I always thought it would be a grease fire that did us in.) Anyhoo ...<BR><BR>Now it looks and smells like a New England Bed & Breakfast. <BR>OK. That works. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0><BR><BR>Oh, yes. A present for the grand opening ... hm ... how about a painting of white pines in winter? And an occasional table near the front door where we can deposit political brochures?<BR><BR>Jn<BR><BR>

Go ahead Ax! Open it!...I got it at the Gates of Mordor...uhm, I didn't go in because they were closed for renovation (did you know that there's new series...ME Trading Spaces?), but there was this gift shop....<BR><BR>See! It's a Grond Ash Tray/Door stop. Should add just the right touch of macabre.<BR><BR><i>picks up the heavy, ugly thing and turns it this way and that, looking quizzically at it</i><BR><BR>You COULD use it as a planter, too, I guess.<BR><BR>TWE

Hello! Just peeking my head in here fresh from a completely crashed and burned computer now restored! Crash courtesy of number 2 son, who knows better (thinks he does) than number 1 (and only) mom, and restoral courtesy of a good friend at our church who found the time to get right on it for us. Genius that he is, he extracted quite a bit from the hard drive, (?) <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0> though there was much lost that is gone forever. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif"border=0> <BR><BR>I saw the diner was moved to these new quarters, and except for the track lighting, they seem quite spiffy. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0> <BR>I come bearing a gift for the new digs, some cozy slippers all around and a rack for all those political brochures. (I like to be organized) <BR><BR>I also come bearing a question:<BR>How <i>do</i> you all find the time to make so many posts? <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif"border=0><BR><BR>Axordil, I know you have seen many come and go, I, however, am of the variety that tends to stick around, albeit not as a constant presence, be it an annoying, nagging or even a pleasant one. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0><BR><BR>Also, the picture of your child, I <i>was definitely </i> thinking vegetables of some variety. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><BR><BR>Ok. Now I will grab a cup of hot chocolate, a slice of warm bread with a <i>very</i> small pat of butter, slip my feet into a pair of these warm slippers, completely avoid all the political brochures, and draw my chair closer to the fireplace. Ahhhhh! <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0><BR><BR>EDIT: I just read the end of the thread recently closed for this adoption thread, and I wanted to stick my 43 cents in if that is all right?? <BR><BR>I think post numbers are imposing to new people, but for me personally I think it would be the whole 'new kid to the neighborhood' situation. Post counts happen by posting! I am sure you are all aware of your posts counts and know others are too, but, I am not going to apologize for mine, why should you? <BR><BR>It makes sense to me that the thread is moved mostly by those familiar with one another and in an already established message board relationship. <BR><BR>Do people ignore a new person? Probably. But I have not felt that here, though if I post and the thread just moves past what I say, it can easily be misunderstood to be what is happening. If one doesn't stop to think about the fact that it <i>is</i> a message board, and that no matter how many smilies there are to choose from, we can still take things the wrong way, one can get offended and leave. <BR><BR>I am personally not that good at putting my thoughts into paragraph (coherence) form, but I am more often than not, willing to give it a shot. <BR><BR>So, I will reiterate, I have not been made to feel unwelcome here. I have felt quite lost in the enormity of this board though, but I don't 'blame' anyone here for that. I can be silly at times, but I am not <i>that</i> silly. I also have only been around message boards for 9 months at this point, and have a decent post count already, I think, but I just cannot get here too often. Again, it is not the boards fault for moving on with message board life. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><BR><BR>Hmm, that may have been more than 43 cents, but I hope you all know what I am trying to say.<BR><BR>EDIT EDIT: See what I mean? This may turn out to be my only post for today! Today is also my oldest son's 24th birthday. So, I am one of the <i>older</i> posters. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0>

DotK - Happy birthday to your oldest son! <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0> Feel free to pass him a piece of cake from the Diner. Virtual cake keeps indefinitely.<BR><BR>My oldest daughter will turn 24 in about two months, and her husband hits the gong a month after that. So we *are* a variety of ages and stages here. <BR><BR>Diversity is always less intimidating, of course, than walking into a conversation where everyone is the same and you are the odd-person-out. There are threads and even whole forums that I stay away from for that reason. Luckily there's enough diversity on this board that nearly everyone can find a place, but you're right , DotK, that the board look HUGE when you first enter.<BR><BR>Jn

bounces in the door, <BR><BR>wheres my Caffiene IV <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif"border=0>...I go away for a weekend of bikin' and doggin' and back I come to a total makeover <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif"border=0><BR><BR><BR>

wooohoooo so it is <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0> thanks JNY <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0><BR><BR>Daughter of the King, my baby is 25 this week...wow that makes me feel old.<BR><BR><BR>Please remember that the IV only takes triple strength and the litter box should be lined with pages of SUE Trollkins book <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-devil.gif"border=0><BR><BR>Farewell fellow diners.<BR>Ax, I'll email you <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0>, life is taking a real dive offline as well as on. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0>, and I might just need a friendly shoulder, so get out the supa dooper extra strong tuff tiggerty tissues <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><BR><BR><b>Edited</b>: Let it die Tigger. <b>SJ</b>

<img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif"border=0><BR><BR>what indeed.<BR><BR>seems the cleaning machine has gone into overdrive. <BR><BR>Now I really do feel as though I am being stalked, can't even chat with friends about the difficulties of expressing oneself in prose without being misunderstood in the diner <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif"border=0><BR><BR>walks away from thread, from TORC, and resolves to take a break....<img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-crying.gif"border=0><BR><BR>Ax, I will email you, my son is becoming more and more limited in what he can do, life stinks right now. Why does stuff like this happen to the good guys <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-crying.gif"border=0>, they say it could be another year, maybe less. I just want to hit something right now, but I am so numb I can't even raise the enthusiasim to do that.

<BR>I want to show you all a picture I took a few weeks ago right after an ice storm. The light from the rising sun is shining through the ice on the tree straight into the camera and it's really pretty. I just saw it today for the first time, as I just snapped the pic and forgot to download it afterwards. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><BR><BR><A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://img4.photobucket.com/albums/0803/MariaHobbit/pictures%20from%20home/25dea0d0.jpg">http://img4.photobucket.com/albums/0803/MariaHobbit/pictures%20from%20home/25dea0d0.jpg</A><BR><BR>

MH, its beautiful, <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><BR><BR>like ax said it looks like a faery glade <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0><BR><BR>

So Cool, MariaH. You should enter that in a contest ... photographic effects and all. It <i>does</i> look like strings of faeries.<BR><BR>Anyone see the movie Photographing Faeries? I loved that movie .. the Beethoven score was so chilling.<BR><BR>Jn

sounds like a movie to find and view :, I just spent mega dollars this week on dragon, faery and Tolkien books.<BR><BR>me bad <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-devil.gif"border=0> <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif"border=0>, <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif"border=0> but I like it <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0><BR><BR>

MariaHobbit, WOW!!!! What a photo!<BR>It made me think of a CJ Cherryh book, "The Tree of Swords and Jewels," wherein (if my fuzzy memory serves), the jewels hanging from the tree are the souls of Elves who have left the human lands, tree guarded by Arafel, the heroine Elf of the story. There is a Michael Whelan (I think) painting of the scene, but your photo is better.<BR><BR><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><BR>And HOORAY for Tigger. No particular reason, just Because. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0><BR><BR>My TORC event of the week was spending my lunch hour yesterday reading the mega-thread about the Golden Globes and Oscar Noms - better than 1,000 posts in what, about a day? Gak!!!!!!<BR><BR>I am surely going to miss that sort of goings-on over in Movies; my guess is Oscar Night, and that will be the last of such craziness.<BR><BR>Of course, other craziness will (I hope) continue over there.<BR><BR>We, here in the new Hash House, however, are always sane and sensible. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif"border=0>

<BR>Thanks everyone! I hadn't thought about a contest. Not something I'm really interested in, though I will print out a good copy and frame it for my own use. So few of the photos I take turn out well that I'm kind of amazed when one does! <BR><BR>Hey, Tiggy! I just found out that TORC Ted raised $240 USD!!! WOW! Who'd have thought one little guy would bring so much? And the quilt raised $750, much MUCH more than I thought possible. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0> Cool! <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif"border=0>.<BR><BR>

<img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0>...I am thrilled MH, to hear that my wee bear could be so popular and raise so much for such a worthy charity <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0><BR><BR>I shoulda bought tickets in the quilt, but I kept thinking of the logistics of getting it here if I won, and I put it off till it was too late <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif"border=0><BR><BR>I saved your photo to my 'puter I hope you don't mind, I'd like to use it as my wallpaper for a week or so, I am constantly looking for new pictures <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0> IF you object I'll delete it before I put it up <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0>

<BR>No problem, I don't mind. In fact, I'll send you a higher resolution version of it if you want it. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0> Photobucket automatically shrinks photos that people publish, so the original file is much larger.<BR><BR>Come to think of it, I haven't even seen the original yet! My daughter is the one who downloaded this off the camera and then IM'd me to show me where she'd published it online already- I just copied her file and put it in my album on photobucket. I don't even know if the bigger one is prettier or not, yet!<BR><BR>Anyway, it's yours if you want it, Tiggy. Just set me a file size limit, and I'll shrink it to something managable. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><BR><BR>

That is a beautiful picture Maria! I agree that you should enter it in a photo contest! <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><BR><BR>Thank you for your kind words Jnyusa! The birthday boy graduates college this spring. Sometimes it is hard to believe that he once sat in a high chair like Axordil's young one happily smearing vegetables on his face. I used that same high chair for these guys too, 17 and 15 though they now be. That makes me....about ready to find something else to think about. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif"border=0>

DoTK. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0><BR><BR>Tommorrow my 'Baby' turns 25. <BR><BR>and its true, as they leave home, they take our love, our concern and we are still their safety net to some extent, but the time we have for ourselves is suddenly so much vaster than we ever remembered.<BR><BR>I have learnt so much more about myself since my children left home,and have discovered so many more interests and activities.<BR><BR><img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif"border=0>.

My three are all teenagers. In six years my youngest ought to be off to college! Woooo HOOOOOO! Yay! I can't imagine being sad about that. Of course, I'm in the worst of the teen years right now with kids at age 16, 15 & 13. Things might look different later...... maybe. <img src="http://www.tolkienonline.com/mb/i/expressions/face-icon-small-rolleyes.gif"border=0> *sigh* <BR><BR>That pic doesn't look any different on hi rez, Tiggy, if you were wondering.